Category: The Healing Journey

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365 Devotionals: Peace

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
-Colossians 3:15

There was a lot of chaos in my house today. I wasn’t nearly Christ-like.

Sometimes my peaceful parenting journey feels like it’s in reverse. Even so, I apologized and promised my sons that my temper is my responsibility and not theirs.

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365 Devotionals: Process

I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
-Philippians 1:6

My process is slow. I’ve come to a radical place, but it took a lot of detours and doubts and a tragedy or two.

I am grateful for the change the Holy Spirit has manifested in my life and I look forward to the continuation of the process.

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365 Devotionals: Let Love Rule

For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
-Galatians 5:13-14 KJV

The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
-Galatians 5:22-23 NLT

Love is anarchy. It has no laws and no governors. It is freedom from earthly chains. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in each of us.

Disclosure: The links below are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. 

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Suffer Better

I try not to push one podcast episode over and over, but Lex Fridman’s conversation with David Wolpe on Judaism got me through mountains of dishes and laundry today.

The conversation is wide ranging and enlightening.

The only whole heart is a broken one because it lets the light in.
-David Wolpe

I wouldn’t be much without my broken hearts. I feel like I’d be a shell without the broken mind I experienced after losing my wife.

Brokenness is scapegoated for our frailties and flaws, yet it allows us to let light into places that were walled off. Our tragedies, whether self-inflicted, perpetrated against us, or random, teach us more about ourselves than otherwise possible.

Why Faith Matters by David Wolpe

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Unsubtle

In a world packed with stimuli, it can be hard to listen to God. Today, He didn’t give me a chance to miss the message.

I got into the car frustrated as my sons had dragged their feet and only half-heartedly helped on the tasks I needed complete for our adventures.

Westen asked to listen to something rogether and I stopped him, “No. You two aren’t listening to me and I don’t want to engage with you right now.” I put my earbuds in and rejoined the same podcast I posted about a couple days ago.

David Wolpe: Judaism

Per usual, it wasn’t five minutes before Westen was talking to me. I attempted patience and waited for my chance to say that I didn’t want to talk. He went on to talk about racism as discussed in the Bible.

The conversation in my ear had turned to tribalism in the Torah and today.

Okay God, I get it, thanks.

I pulled the earbuds out and heard the rest of Westen’s ideas. I added a couple examples of stories from the New Testament and Isaac gladly joined the conversation.

I am consistently impressed by my son’s minds. They listen keenly and question right down to the principles. I don’t take much credit for this, God sent me these free thinkers to challenge and embolded my faith.

I thank God for knowing that sometimes I need to be knocked back into loving engagement with those around me.

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Eight Must-Listen Minutes on Russia, Ukraine, and Humanity

I wasn’t going to blog tonight. I broke my streak (again) a couple nights ago through a silly mistake, I’ve been off balance with many of my self-care routines, and I’ve had my words here used against me. Although I am a tireless optimist and feel good about my life’s direction, I feel distracted.

I should listen to Lex Friedman more often. His sober compassion for humanity is deeply reassuring. In the first 8 minutes of this podcast, he expresses the most important aspects of the current state of the world on which to focus.

I chose this episode for my ride home as I wanted to learn about a religion of which I know little. I found myself refreshed after the opening monologue, and I hope you do too.

David Volpe – Judaism

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365 Devotionals: Foundations

“Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.”
-Matthew 7:24-25

There is always another storm. Make sure to build your home on the rock.

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March

March is that perfect drama of death and rebirth. The Easter season is acted out in nature as early daffodils are smashed by late snow and resurrected by early spring sun.

I worry that too much of my focus is on death. I spend a lot of time outside in the winter and supplement with vitamin D, but late winter brings back the loss of my wife and the weight of long nights.

The days are growing longer and I’ve returned to being outside near sunrise. I can feel my focus turning to the life-affirming resurrection of Christ. The darkest days and the brightest days pushed up against one another.

I thrive on that edge between light and dark. I am a child of my birth month.

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Back to Normal, Just Like That?

Four months ago I wrote about the injustice of venues like Delaware Art Museum demanding their patrons receive an unapproved pharmaceutical product into their bodies that could never be removed.

Dear Delaware Art Museum,

Almost everyone is dropping these requirements now: the State of Delaware, Philly, museums, concert venues, etc. They coerced permanent health decisions upon their community and didn’t have the fortitude to last half a year in their resolve.

The public deserves assurances that we can trust these institutions to not be prey to the media’s winds of change. We deserve to hear how decisions of this magnitude will be made in the future. We deserve to have some knowledge of the process by which businesses, governments, and public spaces will again consider bullying the people they claim to serve.

I’m going to my first concert in two years tonight. When I bought my tickets there was no vax mandate, then there was, then there wasn’t. All of this in a few months. They wouldn’t refund my money when they changed the terms of the sale, so I will not be likely to trust them with my funds again. Same goes for Delaware Art Museum and all the places that chased a media narrative instead of making careful determinations as to whether they had the right to ask their patrons for this irreversible condition.

I lived happily without concerts for these two years. Living without museums was harder, but there are still many who did not press upon the health decisions of their visitors.

My priorities are clearer now, I know what I can do without. I’m prepared to withhold my support until I can feel trust towards the places that did not trust me to make my own health decisions.